‘A crappy service’ says River Action, as Boat Race crews warned of sewage-stuffed Thames

Warnings have been issued about the quality of the River Thames as rowing crews from rival universities – Oxford and Cambridge – prepare for the iconic Boat Race, due to take place on Sunday. It’s a depressingly familiar story for the UK, where the state of rivers and the pollutants within them, occupy much of the national zeitgeist.

“Thames Water is a failing company, propped up by creditors while customers pay for a crappy service —literally,” says Erica Popplewell from campaign group River Action which has been testing the water quality in the River Thames. “We need urgent reform—this is a scandal.”

The organisation warns that water quality for the stretch of the river set to host the event would be classified as ‘poor’ under environmental regulations if it were designated as a ‘bathing water’ site. Whomever wins should not, therefore, be throwing the cox in.

While wet weather often exacerbates pollution through increased sewage discharges, recent conditions tell a different story. Since E.coli testing by River Action started on 10 March, there has been just one day of rain, yet the river champions found that 29.5 per cent of samples exceeded safe limits for entering the water, almost three times the threshold for bathing waters rated ‘poor’.

Rowing legend Sir Steve Redgrave has backed calls for urgent action to clean up the river.

“It’s a real worry that in 2025, unsafe water quality in the Thames is still a concern, Rowers, river users, and the public deserve better,” he says.

Last June MIN reported on a sewage spat at Henley Royal Regatta. At the time, Thames Water denied any wrongdoing. For two years in a row, campaigners testing the water found unsafe levels of E-coli and intestinal enterococci.

River Action worked alongside Fluidion and Planet Ocean to do the testing while using the Alert One system. Fludion further validated the results. Treated wastewater from sewage treatment plants, which currently face no legal limits on E.coli levels, is a major but overlooked contributor to the pollution of the River Thames, say the campaign group.

Despite ongoing public outrage, the construction of the Tideway Tunnel (which won’t resolve upstream pollution), a £3bn financial bailout plan, and Thames Water executives receiving massive salaries and bonuses, the latter is still failing to maintain its ageing infrastructure. Regulators have also failed to hold the water company accountable.

Immediately upstream of the boat race finish line, the monitoring system on the combined sewage overflow pipe at Kew (Kew Transfer) has been offline since 17 January, undermining the legal requirement for all sewage outfalls to be monitored, says River Action. It is not known how much this pipe may have been discharging sewage into the Thames, near to the boat race finish line.

“The Mayor of London’s vision for clean and healthy rivers is simply a pipe dream without systematic reform of the water industry and its regulators,” Popplewell, River Action’s head of communities, continues. (Information about the campaigns which the group runs can be found on its website.)

“Right now, if the stretch of the Thames used for the Boat Race were an official bathing site it would be graded poor, the lowest possible rating. The government’s own advice for such water is ‘do not swim.’ So, we strongly suggest that the winning team on Sunday think twice before throwing their cox in the Thames.

“We would also urge all rowers to follow the ‘Guidance for Rowing When Water Quality is Poor’ safety guidelines to mitigate risk. The Boat Race should be about sporting excellence — not about worrying if you’ll get sick from being dunked – and attracting people to take up water sports as a healthy activity.

“The public demands Thames Water and regulators act now to improve sewage treatment infrastructure. Thames Water has profited from pollution for years whilst the government have failed to enforce the law. It’s time to refinance the company without burdening bill payers and end pollution-for-profit. The decades-long water industry privatisation experiment has been a disaster. Thames Water should be put into government hands and operated for public benefit. That process could start tomorrow with the right political will by putting Thames Water into special administration and restructuring the company.”

“As rowers, we train on these waters every day, and the health and climate risks are deeply concerning,” adds Olympic champion rower Imogen Grant. “It’s unacceptable that we have to compete on a river with such an unavoidable threat to health.”